Artist Management Agreements

New artists often think that the first person they need on their team is a “manager”. They’ve all heard the stories of the “big” managers who can snap their fingers and make something happen for their clients.

The reality is that when an artist is just starting out, those first 1,000 to 10,000 units are just as hard to sell for the new artist using Internet based tools as it is for the big manager with the major label backing. When I say “sell”, I mean that literally—get someone who you don’t know to pay money for your record. I don’t mean some promotional gimmick or getting a retailer to take some units they can later return for full refund. That’s not a “sale.” Real sales have always been hard, and they are just as hard in the current environment as ever, and actually given the levels…